Demonetisation: Select petrol pumps to dispense cash up to Rs 2,000 from today

In a bid to ease cash crunch, the government on Thursday allowed dispensing cash of up to Rs 2,000 through debit card swipe at select petrol pumps.

"It has been decided that an amount up to Rs 2000 per day per person in cash can be dispensed against swiping of debit card from select petrol pumps where POS machines of SBI are already available," an official said.

The facility is going to be available on 2,500 petrol pumps, run by state-run oil companies.

POS machines are the machines which are generally used for debit or credit card transactions.

The plan of using pumps to dispense cash was discussed on 17 November at a meeting held between senior executives of Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum and SBI chief Arundhati Bhattacharya.

People have been facing huge issues following the cash-crunch with queues getting thicker in front of banks.

On 8 November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes will be scrapped in a bid to curb black money.

The cash exchange limit has been changed to Rs 2,000 from Rs 4,500 over the cash counters in bank.

On Thursday, it was announced by government that families with weddings can withdraw Rs 2.5 lakh.

Economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das said that the families will be required to sign a self-declaration document saying the money was drawn against only one account (father, mother, groom or bride).